Work Life Balance vs. Work Life Parallel

Work Life Balance vs. Work Life Parallel
What’s the difference?

If you’re chasing work life balance—you’re doing it wrong.

Work life balance is a false dichotomy. Sure, I’m taking a hardline stance on a literal definition, but I bet, deep down inside, you feel the same way. Work life balance is a teeter-totter with work on one side and life on the other. If you do everything right, you get half your life. Work gets the rest.

Work life balance is the distinct separation of work and life.

I don’t agree with that. Partly because Work dictates all the sleep falls into the Life half, but mostly because the entire concept is based on a clean break between what we do for a living–and how we want to live.

You really want work life parallel—here’s why.

It’s when what you do for a living is what you do whether you’re paid to do it or not. Yeah. Kinda like your high school guidance counselor asked you all those years ago. ”If you had millions in the bank and didn’t have to get a job–how would you spend your days?”

Work life parallel is the life aligned.

Everything on your plate is important–to you. It all matters–to you. Even if you’re not doing exactly what you want to do with your life, you can clearly see how it makes you better at what you really want to do with your life. The time you spend working should mean more to you than a paycheck.

Let’s change the way you feel about work.

Do you work to live–or live to work? Work life balance is working to live. It’s the bare minimum. Work life parallel, on the other hand, is living to work. It’s your life’s work. It’s your legacy. It’s life changing.

Don’t spread yourself thin. Make it ALL count. There are 24 hours in a day. After eight hours of sleep, do you really want to split the other 16 between making more money and being happier? Shouldn’t all 16 waking hours a day go toward both?

Your life means more than simply paying bills. You should be getting up in the morning excited about what the day holds. I know I am–even when it scares the shit out of me.

Let’s get your life aligned.

Now that I’m after parallel, I want to help you get there as well. There’s two phases to work life parallel–before & after. I don’t have all the answers, but I’ve found a lot of them in the last decade pursuing work life parallel.